This invention relates to electrical connectors and, in particular, to a shroud for securing to an electrical connector to key the assembly to one of several locations on a printed circuit board. The shroud has a keying feature complementary to keying structure on the connector to assure it is securable to only one end of the connector and a protrusion receivable in an aperture in the circuit board on which the connector is mounted to assure that the appropriate connector is positioned at the corresponding appropriate one of several possible locations for such connectors on the circuit board.
Alignment and blind mate assist shrouds securable to a connector to form a connector assembly mountable to a circuit board are known. One application has required that several such connector assemblies be mounted to a single circuit board. In an effort to assist those persons who assemble the mating or complementary connectors to the various connector assemblies on a single board to correlate a particular mating connector to the intended one of the several possible connector assemblies, the pair of shrouds secured to each connector on the board have been made of various colors of plastic such as yellow, red, white, gray, green, or blue. That is, each connector had secured to it two shrouds of a single particular color so as to color code each connector assembly by the color of the shrouds. While this approach was successful to help those who assembled the mating connectors to the various connector assemblies by permitting the mating connector assembler to select the proper one of the assemblies to mate a particular mating connector to by color, it was successful only if the connector assembly having the appropriate color shrouds was positioned at the corresponding location on the circuit board during stuffing of the components thereon. Since each of the prior art shrouds was identical to the other shrouds, but for color, there was always the possibility that an error could be made in positioning a connector assembly having shrouds of the wrong color at a particular assembly receiving position on a circuit board. This could then lead to the wrong mating connector being mated thereto. When placing a polarization feature on the shroud and providing multiple locations for the polarization feature, there resulted a need to be assured when the shroud with the polarization and keying function was placed on the connector, it was received on the appropriate end.
There is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,507,861 a tool for grasping then stuffing rectangular electronic components on a circuit board. The tool has foot-like extensions for grasping the electronic component at each of the corners. Three of the four foot-like extensions have locator pins receivable in apertures in the printed circuit board to provide a polarization feature to assure that the tool stuffs the component on the circuit board with a particular orientation.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,744,140 discloses a tool for mounting connectors onto a circuit board. The tool includes a pair of pins, one of smaller diameter and one of larger diameter, which pass through holes in the connector to be mounted then into corresponding apertures in the printed circuit board. The tool provides for the connector to be received on the pins in only one orientation and, since the board is provided with holes identically sized to the pins and precisely located, the connector is positioned on the board by the tool in a predetermined orientation that accurately pilots the connector leads into plated through holes in the circuit board.